Environmental Effects: Difference between revisions
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[[Category:Epic Path]] | [[Category:Epic Path]] | ||
Outside the safety of city walls, the wilderness is a dangerous place, and many adventurers have gotten lost in its trackless wilds or fallen victim to deadly weather. The following rules give you guidelines on running adventures in a wilderness setting. Any level of sturdy shelter is enough to halt environmental effects, no matter how crude. A cave serves nicely, and even a simple overhang will serve. Many items and spell effects that provide shelter also stop all environmental effects. Portable shelter, such as camp fires and tents, are not nearly as good, but still far better than nothing, and a tent combined with sturdy clothes appropriate to heat or cold can make the wilderness...not cozy, but much less dangerous. | Outside the safety of city walls, the wilderness is a dangerous place, and many adventurers have gotten lost in its trackless wilds or fallen victim to deadly weather. The following rules give you guidelines on running adventures in a wilderness setting. Any level of sturdy shelter is enough to halt environmental effects, no matter how crude. A cave serves nicely, and even a simple overhang will serve. Many items and spell effects that provide shelter also stop all environmental effects. Portable shelter, such as camp fires and tents, are not nearly as good, but still far better than nothing, and a tent combined with sturdy clothes appropriate to heat or cold can make the wilderness...not cozy, but much less dangerous. | ||
NOTE to GM's: The Environment rules are optional, but provide a great way of creating a real 'survival horror' experience if you're running a low-level, [[Campaign_Power_Level | low-power]] 'grime and guts' sort of a campaign. Indeed, the whole 'Grim World' power level pretty much cries out for the Environmental effects rules, to make it truly, perfectly awful. However, approach with caution! Even high-powered, well-equipped adventurers that are not prepared for environmental effects can find themselves in a lot of trouble very quickly if they aren't used to it. Since environmental damage is non-lethal (until it starts killing you), very few of the most common and potent defenses will work against it, and even extremely mighty parties can find themselves in trouble quickly. This might be the effect you're after, but be careful! Also, be wary of the scaling of environment effects, especially the Falling Object rules. Giant toppling trees are extremely deadly, which is what you would expect from dropping a Redwood on somebody, and avalanches and tsunamis and pyroclastic flows are just utterly unfair. Use these things sparingly...unless your campaign is into such things, of course. | NOTE to GM's: The Environment rules are optional, but provide a great way of creating a real 'survival horror' experience if you're running a low-level, [[Campaign_Power_Level | low-power]] 'grime and guts' sort of a campaign. Indeed, the whole 'Grim World' power level pretty much cries out for the Environmental effects rules, to make it truly, perfectly awful. However, approach with caution! Even high-powered, well-equipped adventurers that are not prepared for environmental effects can find themselves in a lot of trouble very quickly if they aren't used to it. Since environmental damage is non-lethal (until it starts killing you), very few of the most common and potent defenses will work against it, and even extremely mighty parties can find themselves in trouble quickly. This might be the effect you're after, but be careful! Also, be wary of the scaling of environment effects, especially the Falling Object rules. Giant toppling trees are extremely deadly, which is what you would expect from dropping a Redwood on somebody, and avalanches and tsunamis and pyroclastic flows are just utterly unfair. Use these things sparingly...unless your campaign is into such things, of course. | ||
==Monsters and the Environment== | |||
Players have to suffer all these terrible effects...but what about monsters? | |||
For simplicity, it is assumed that all monsters have enough resistance to Environmental non-lethal damage that they never take effects from their usual environment. A tribe of orcs that lives atop the highest peak in the land just completely ignore the cold, thin air, constant scouring of icy needles, and all ill effects of the brutal winds. | |||
This is totally unfair, but that's how it works. As a consolation, all the environmental effects that deal lethal damage, such as falling objects or avalanches, affect monsters just like they do characters. | |||
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Characters at risk of catching fire are allowed a Hard reflex saving throw of their CR to avoid this fate. If a character's clothes or hair catch fire, he suffers the [[Singed]] condition with the damage based on his CR, or the CR of the effect which caused the ignition, whichever is higher. Removing this singed condition is done as normal, although at GM discretion you may need to do other things in your given set of circumstances. | Characters at risk of catching fire are allowed a Hard reflex saving throw of their CR to avoid this fate. If a character's clothes or hair catch fire, he suffers the [[Singed]] condition with the damage based on his CR, or the CR of the effect which caused the ignition, whichever is higher. Removing this singed condition is done as normal, although at GM discretion you may need to do other things in your given set of circumstances. | ||
==Extinguish / Douse a Fire== | ===Extinguish / Douse a Fire=== | ||
In general terms, a gallon of water, cool ash, sand, dirt, and similar substances can put out the flames on five square feet of surface. To extinguish the flames in a standard square thus requires five gallons of water, or a large pail. A Size Medium Character has roughly 25 square feet of surface, and thus requires five gallons to put out. Size Small requires only a gallon, size Large requires forty gallons, Size Huge requires 320 gallons, etc. | In general terms, a gallon of water, cool ash, sand, dirt, and similar substances can put out the flames on five square feet of surface. To extinguish the flames in a standard square thus requires five gallons of water, or a large pail. A Size Medium Character has roughly 25 square feet of surface, and thus requires five gallons to put out. Size Small requires only a gallon, size Large requires forty gallons, Size Huge requires 320 gallons, etc. | ||
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Some volcanic eruptions create a devastating wave of burning ash, hot gases, and volcanic debris called a pyroclastic flow that can travel for miles. Treat a pyroclastic flow as an avalanche combined with a wildfire, that also inflicts the [[Burned]] condition doing [[Fire]] damage to all those struck by it. If you fail the save, the Burned damage is doubled until you can escape. Note that because a pyroclastic flow is also a fire, you cannot fly above it to escape, taking heavy smoke damage. | Some volcanic eruptions create a devastating wave of burning ash, hot gases, and volcanic debris called a pyroclastic flow that can travel for miles. Treat a pyroclastic flow as an avalanche combined with a wildfire, that also inflicts the [[Burned]] condition doing [[Fire]] damage to all those struck by it. If you fail the save, the Burned damage is doubled until you can escape. Note that because a pyroclastic flow is also a fire, you cannot fly above it to escape, taking heavy smoke damage. | ||
==Water== | ==Water== | ||